Kanotix 2005-03 Reviewed
I’m really impressed with Kanotix. The live cd ran beautifully and once I figured out how to use ndiswrappers, my ago-old problem on not having my wlan card running on a Live CD went away. Part of the reason I’m impressed is that Kanotix is a Debian-based distro (actually, it’s based on Knoppix) and Debian distros just seem to be a little more zippy to me.
Version: Kanotix 2005-03
Easy to find:
Website must contain information on which versions are available (Live CD, Full Install, etc): 2.
Website is very sparse and therefore easy to find stuff.
Website must contain working links to the download repository: 2
Torrents and ISOs available.
Distributor must provide forums or FAQ for support: 2
FAQ and Forums supplied. Forums are primarily in German, but there is a category set aside specifically for English speakers.
Easy to download:
Download must be in standard ISO format: 2
Yup.
Website must supply MD5 checksums of ISO: 2
Yup
Easy to install:
Pre-GUI installation must not require any configuration of basic devices like monitor, keyboard, or mouse: 2
Picked up everything including my soundcard which historically has problems with the 2.6.11
kernel.
Installation must allow for selection of a window manager: 1
Installation doesn’t allow selection, but the standard ‘sessions’ option exists on the login panel to allow selection of three or four window managers
Basic installation must properly configure video, sound, networking, keyboard, and mouse on at least one of my three test computers: 1
I had to run ndiswrappers to get my wlan card running, but it was pretty painless. I want to give a ‘2’ here, but I just can’t without breaking my own rules.
Easy to use:
Distro must include following applications: 2
o Office applications (word processor and spreadsheet at minimum)
o Internet tools (browser and email at minimum)
o Some type of graphics program
o Some type of PIM application (calendar and contacts at minimum)
o File system browser application to view and use my CDROM, HDD, and USB stick
TONS of applications.
I have to be able to figure out how to access the program menu within 60 seconds of desktop launch: 2
KDE is default desktop.
I have to be able to figure out how to shut down/log off within 60 seconds of wanting to do so: 2
Again, KDE is default desktop. No problems here.
Total: 20/22 or 91%: Suitable for new users!
I’m really impressed with Kanotix. The live cd ran beautifully and once I figured out how to use ndiswrappers, my ago-old problem on not having my wlan card running on a Live CD went away. Part of the reason I’m impressed is that Kanotix is a Debian-based distro (actually, the live cd is based on Knoppix) and Debian distros just seem to be a little more zippy to me.
The boot is definitely much faster than my FC3 machine (about a full minute faster) and the speed of apt-get is a welcome relief from the lethargic yum.
There’s an interesting little menu item I’ve never seen before called Klik that allows you to run applications without installing them. This is a really neat feature when running the Live CD (although admittedly I didn’t discover Klik until after doing the hard drive install so I’m speculating that it works when running live bit I’m pretty sure that’s why it was included in the distro). However, if you do a hard drive install, I think you’d be farther ahead to just install any applications you’d like. I found Klik to be really slow both at downloading and at launching the apps.
The only application I have downloaded since installing Kanotix is Opera. Although Kanotix comes with Mozilla, Konqueror and Lynx (don’t tell Kelly Penguin Girl!), I’m on the Opera train for the moment. Opera has some javascript problems that I don’t like, but I love the interface and the skins. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Kanotix came with my other ‘must-have’ application, Audacity, already installed.
So far I’m quite enjoying Kanotix and this week’s podcast is being recorded on it. Nice job!